Kevin Frisch: There's more to the 26th Congressional District win than Medicare

Tuesday

May 31, 2011 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2011 at 4:13 AM

I know, I know. The professional pundits, national party leaders, even the candidate — everyone says it was Medicare that propelled the election of a Democrat last week in New York’s fire engine-red 26th Congressional District.

Kevin Frisch

I know, I know. The professional pundits, national party leaders, even the candidate — everyone says it was Medicare that propelled the election of a Democrat last week in New York’s fire engine-red 26th Congressional District.

Conventional wisdom holds that the race was a referendum on Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal to cut billions of dollars over the next decade from Medicare and turn it into a voucher-like program.

Steve Israel, Democratic congressional campaign committee chairman, repeated the assertion to anyone with a pen or a microphone on election night: “The three reasons a Democrat was elected to Congress in the (26th) district were Medicare, Medicare and …” — any guesses? That’s right! — “… Medicare.”

Maybe that’s true. But I’m not so sure. For one thing, Democrat Kathy Hochul ran a pretty good race. She was energetic, on-message and up on the issues — many of them. Not just Medicare, though she was certainly wise enough to exploit her opponent’s support of the controversial Ryan proposal.

And as Erie County Clerk, Hochul could point to run-ins with past Democratic governors as proof of her political independence: Eliot Spitzer and his ill-fated plan to provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens in New York; David Paterson and his ill-fated plan to force us all New Yorkers to buy new license plates.

For another thing, the Republican candidate, New York Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, did not run a strong campaign. It’s true her embrace of the Ryan plan while even GOP stalwarts like Newt Gingrich were backing away from it didn’t help. But neither did a bizarre videotape her campaign staff released, which they said showed a third candidate attacking one of Corwin’s volunteers.

Her assertion that she was elected to the Assembly in 2008 with 36 years professional business experience didn’t help, either. She was 44 at the time. She grew up working for her family business, the Talking Phone Book.

Also, there was that third candidate: Jack Davis, who ran with tea party support. Davis was a lifelong Republican who became miffed with his party and ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2004, 2006 and 2008. He rejoined the GOP in 2010 and backed former Republican Rep. Chris Lee. Davis ended up with about 9 percent of the vote. It’s a safe assumption he polled more Republicans in the heavily Republican district.

For a final thing, there was the Lee residue. The married congressman abruptly resigned in February when a shirtless photo he allegedly sent to a would-be date on the website Craigslist became public. It made for an unseemly public departure — and that’s a far cry from allowing Corwin to run with the backing of her district’s (and party’s) esteemed predecessor, as former Rep. Tom Reynolds did when he succeeded Bill Paxon, or as Paxon did as the district’s heir-apparent to Jack Kemp.

So it wasn’t just Medicare. In fact, the key observation about the race comes not from political watchers or paid pundits but from a semi-retired project manager interviewed by the Associated Press the day after the election.

“I would expect to make sacrifices in Medicare — I don’t think the fact that I’m so close to 65 should exclude me,” 63-year-old Michele Weaver said at a restaurant in Monroe County. “But the most important thing is fairness. Part of what we’re all feeling is it keeps coming down and coming down on the middle class.”

That’s the key: The race may not have been a referendum on the GOP Medicare plan, but the GOP Medicare plan can be seen as a referendum on fairness.

That’s the lesson both parties should take away from last week’s special election.

Kevin Frisch’s column, Funny Thing ..., appears each Sunday in the Canandaigua Daily Messenger in New York. Contact him at (585) 394-0770, ext. 257, or via e-mail at kfrisch@messengerpostmedia.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.